Of All the Things that I Don't Know (Spot Conlon + OC)

Chapter 6

Spot Conlon nearly jumped out of his skin as he felt the wood beneath his feet tremble with a sudden influx of extra weight. He spun around quickly to irritably scowl at Rummy, his second in command, who lazily leaned against the back of his perch.

"Sorry ta startle ya, boss," Rummy murmured, a slight smirk gracing his tan face.

Spot glared ferociously at Rummy, further peeved that for one, he had actually noticed Spot's uncharacteristic jolt and for another, that he found it so damn amusing.

"How goes it, Rummy?" Spot growled, turning again towards the docks that the majority of his newsies scattered across.

"Eh, it goes, I 'spose'," Rummy responded, a lilt of laughter in his voice as he came to stand next to Spot.

Spot had known Rummy for as long as he'd been with the Brooklyn newsies. He sometimes found Rummy's laid back and easily humored personality annoying, but strangely enough, it also was the thing he appreciated the most about him. Spot had always been serious and unemotional. He assumed that these traits were one of the things that turned him into the respected and feared leader he now was, but he hadn't always felt so emotionally inhibited. And if he was honest with himself, he rather craved those fleeting times of emotional freedom he had experienced before.

In fact, he had been feeling a strange uptightness as of late, leading to even more moments of apathy. It didn't necessarily bother him to be closed off. It was actually easier to function that way, and he often didn't notice the natural way his face deadpanned and how his arms instinctively crossed over his chest. But, as he vexingly found out earlier in the day, Julia noticed everything.

He sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose in exhaustion, which, unfortunately, Rummy also took note of.

"Tired today, eh?" Rummy muttered, his lips naturally turning up in their usually smirk again.

Spot faced him, unable to hold back his irritability any longer and asked gruffly, "You got somethin' ta say ta me, Rummy?"

He had felt his second-in-command's hesitation to speak openly from the moment he had startled Spot from his daze. Normally, Spot would allow a certain amount of pleasantries before getting down to business, but his tiredness had yielded an irritability that he was having a very difficult time masking. He had already snapped at Julia earlier in the day, and threatened one of the younger boys for merely asking a question. He felt minutely guilty for barking at the six-year-old, but he was much less concerned about Julia and now Rummy for that matter.

Rummy sighed himself, his smirk disappearing. "Heard ya come in early this morning, boss. You sure been goin' to Manhattan a lot recently, but ya normally ain't gone that late," Rummy said, staring meaningfully at Spot.

Spot snorted, stating, "There a reason you been monitorin' my comings and goings, Rummy? You need to get a fuckin' hobby."

"Well bein' second in command, I need to know what's goin' on. An, I 'spose bein' your oldest friend, figured there might be somethin' ya need ta talk about."

Spot felt his anger fade immediately as he bent his head down, again touching the bridge of his nose. He didn't want to talk about what had happened last night. He didn't want to admit all the shit he had been feeling since Kate left him standing in the middle of the street, hell since he'd first met her. Just thinking about her now made him want to soak someone. Those emotive green eyes had haunted both his sleeping and waking hours for months. He didn't want to admit to anyone that Katherine Moore was completely and unapologetically under his skin. He shouldn't have been surprised by it anyway, because from almost the first moment he had met her, he had found it immensely difficult to think about anything else.